Investigating health-related behaviour in daily life using ecological momentary assessment (EMA): new developments

Abstract

Aims: • Demonstrate new applications of EMA across a variety of health-related behaviours and determinants. • Introduce novel real-time measures and combinations of real-time measures. • Introduce new methods of analysis. • Promote the continued development of EMA methods in Health Psychology. Rationale: EMA, otherwise referred to as ambulatory assessment or the experience sampling method, is a method of collecting relatively-intensive repeated measures in daily life. Using EMA methods in research has several benefits, including data that: (1) maximise ecological validity; (2) are rich with information about context (where? doing? who with? etc.); (3) minimise recall bias; (4) can combine real-time self-reports with continuous objective monitoring (activity, heart-rate, etc.); and (5) permit the exploration of underlying mechanisms and determinants of behaviour within-individuals, over time. EMA is becoming more popular, with new issues being examined and new methods of data collection and analysis utilised; this symposium will provide a timely opportunity to discuss how EMA is developing. Summary: The symposium covers the use of EMA methods to investigate health-related behaviours in different populations, including clinical, non-clinical, and health professional samples. First, Cheryl Bell presents a study combining real-time self-reports (stress and work tasks), heart-rate, and observer-coded ward-round tasks to investigate a junior doctor’s working day. Next, Gertraud Stadler talks about findings from an intensive longitudinal study of social support and physical activity that combines daily diaries with accelerometer counts. Martyn Jones then presents a study using multilevel structural equation modelling to examine the role of intentions and changes in intention on attendance at cardiac rehabilitation following acute cardiac syndrome. Fourth, Dan Powell talks about utilising the Go/NoGo paradigm to measure real-time executive function, and presents findings on relations between real-time executive function and sedentary behaviour using time-lagged analysis. Lastly, Daryl O’Connor leads a discussion on EMA methods in Health Psychology.